I actually have a few for me. My first and foremost for me was when I was 9 years old. My dad is the president of a fairly large freight forwarding company and at the time he leased a LR31 though it is now owned by his company. For my 9th birthday me, my mom, my dad, and my younger sister took off out of FRG for a hour long sight seeing trip out around Long Island. The F/O came back and I got to sit in the seat and take the controls. I would say that was the day I decided I wanted to be a commercial pilot.

Next on my list is the crash of TWA flight 800. Unfortuenately from my former house out east on Long Island where I grew up in Suffolk County I saw the initial explosion of that airplane from the hot tub on out dock in the back yard. I pointed it out to my dad and he did not think much about it untill we went inside after dark and I was getting ready for bed. I was glued to the telivision watching Channel 12news and ABC news for days after that event. This was prolific in that Shortly after this I was flying Delta Airlines flight 801 on Aug. 14th 1996. We depated LGA for TPA at about 6 P.M. and shortly into the climb there was a thud and than you could feel the plane sort of slow down and reduce it's climb rate. The accident report is shown here. http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=NYC96IA168&rpt=fa . We dumped 15,000 lbs of jet a before landing at JFK on 13 Right. Defineately a memorable experince for me as a kid espesially since the flight numberf was 801.

I have too many to remark on but those stand out. How about everyone else?

There is plenty of room for Gods animals, right next to the mashed potatoes!

Probably my first airliner flight. It was back during the summer of 1966. I'd just turned 10 and my grandmother and I were flying from Newark to Los Angeles to visit my aunt and her family. We were supposed to fly TWA but there was a strike at several airlines and we were rebooked onto New York Airways helicopter to JFK and then AA to BAL (Friendship Int'l) continuing to LAX. My grandmother was scared to death to fly, but a train would take 4 days each way with a change of stations in Chicago and we had only 2 weeks available. The helicopter flight was good, but the big, shiny silver B707-123 was something to behold! I had the window seat and my face was glued to the window for most of the flight. On the way back we were on a World Airways B707-320C non-stop to JFK with a Boeing-Vertol 107 helicopter from JFK to EWR. That trip hooked me on aviation!

1. Two aborted MD-11 take-offs in one night (GRU-ATL) with the accompanying 12 hour mech delay, organizational clusterf#ck that ensued and taking the exact same plane the next afternoon (with no repairs, they just off-loaded some cargo).

The first was when I was 8, flying GVA-JFK on a Swissair 747-300. I asked if I could go to the cockpit, as I always did, they said I could. My parents came with me just because, and when I got there, the pilot let me sit on his lap and make a turn towards the next way-point, with him holding my hands, of course. It was so exhilerating.

The second was when I was 9, and TWA800 went down. I was on N93119 on her last complete flight, doing ATH-JFK as TWA801 in the 4 hours before she went down. I went home and it frightened me enough that it was the same flight in the opposite direction but years later, when I realized the registration was the same, I was shocked.

Then, when I was 11, I was doing GVA-ATH on HB-IWF. Again, less than 5 hours after I landed, that plane went down as SR111 over Peggy's Cove, Novia Scotia. That was frightening for me as well. That, along with TWA800, led to my immense fear of flying, as JFK-GVA and JFK-ATH are still my most common routes. I'm getting better, but I can't help feeling a little worried every time. And, right after I land, I always track the return leg, just in case. As if, by tracking it, I'm making sure everyone on board is safe.

I also have a lot of memorable events, so it's hard to pick THE one, but the most spectacular moment happened in early winter of of '71 when I was at initial training at GEN which is now commonly known as OSL:

I had visited the infirmary for some shots with some fellow recruits. The infirmary was located on the South/West corner of the airport, so one had to walk across the N/S runway to get there. There had been a heavy snowfall the night before and there was a huge mound of snow piled up at the N/W corner of the intersection of the runway/crossingroad.

Before crossing the runway on our way back, a group of 4 Harriers came over, circled the airport once before flying south on their downwind leg and the big red "DO NOT CROSS" light came on. We stopped and saw the 4 Harriers lining up for their approach, the first one came in slowly and made a "Short Field Landing" just 50 meters in front us -AWSOME!

#2 comes in a bit faster and on touch-down something happens to the left outrigger wheel. The plane starts to skid and veers off to the left, right into the huge snow pile! -POOF!

Awestruck we stood there, not quite understanding what we had just seen happening right in front of us. There was only a huge cloud of snow visible, but when the snow settled we could see the airplane lying upside-down in what was left of the snow pile, the engine winding down and steam coming from everywhere, but luckily -no fire.
Now what to do? Not being trained to this situation, we approached the plane carefully and started to dig away the snow around the canopy. Inside we saw the pilot waving frantically -later we found out he was afraid we might activate the ejection mechanism, not a good idea when one is upside-down in a snow pile. Finally the airport crash/rescue crew arrived and we retreated to let them do their work. After a while they also got a crane, lifted the plane, released the canopy and got the pilot out, just his pride was hurt.

The last 2 planes circled while all this was happening and later landed safely, the vertical way.

All this happened just before lunch, so what to do for an encore? -We went to eat.